Brazil’s Atlantic forest – Mata Atlântica – is one of the world’s great biodiversity hotspots, rivalling even the Amazon. Running on and off for several thousand kilometres along the coast, the forest…

Much of Tasmania’s World Heritage has been sculpted by ice. The extension to the area (currently under debate) adds to all these values.
Simon Lieschke/Flickr19 June 2014

The debate around Tasmania’s controversial World Heritage extension, under review this week at international talks in Doha, has centred on forests. But the area includes far more than “just” trees — including…

Three years ago, government plans to privatise the forests met with strong opposition from community groups and NGOs. But there have been calls for change – among others the Woodland Trust has called for…

Fire is one of the reasons tall trees struggle in the heat.
Valley_Guy/Flickr24 February 2014

Clearing forests is one of the major contributors to carbon dioxide emissions — something we’ll need to keep in check if we’re to have any hope of mitigating climate change. Recent research suggested that…

Changing corporate attitudes are giving orangutans and other endangered species in Indonesia’s rainforests more hope of survival.
Flickr/Austronesian Expeditions12 February 2014

Indonesia is the world’s biggest destroyer of forests and four multinational corporations — APP, APRIL, Wilmar and Golden Agri Resources — have been responsible for much of it. Until recently these mega-corporations…

The Abbott government wants iconic forests removed from the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, so they can be logged – a plan opposed by timber companies, their industry body, Tasmania’s Premier…

Using tree measurements by Papua New Guinean villagers such as Daniel and Jackson, scientists can estimate that this tree stores about one tonne of carbon in its trunk and branches.
Michelle Venter19 November 2013

With current concerns focusing, quite rightly, on controlling carbon emissions, it is easy to lose sight of the need for continued conservation efforts. In fact our recent study published in the Proceedings…

Over the last 30 years, every forested continent has had a widespread drought which has killed trees. The geographical scale of drought, and the duration and almost coordinated nature of these droughts…

We can develop a logging industry that works for everyone.
Flickr/Ta Ann: Behind the veneer12 August 2013

Australian forestry is shifting: in recent months some states have moved to log less, some more. More logging brings protests about environmental values; less, complaints about how it will affect the state’s…

Harnessing the energy in wood may help wean Australia off fossil fuels.
Flickr/chriscardinal24 July 2013

With Australia trying to meet renewable energy targets and reduce emissions wherever possible, we should be considering bioenergy. Bioenergy can be made by burning biomass in a variety of forms, including…

A sliver of hope as forests learn to consume more CO2.
Moyan Brenn23 July 2013

Global warming is primarily driven by increasing emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities. Chief among these gases is carbon dioxide (CO2), which warms the planet by trapping heat that would…

Tropical forests such as this in Borneo remove large quantities of atmospheric carbon dioxide.
H-D Viktor Boehm23 July 2013